It has long been known that an elegant food dish can be obtained by baking various foods inside a pastry encapsulating crust. Beef wellington is an example.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,622 (Kingham) describes preparation of a shelf-stable filled food product which has a bread casing and a filling. The filling is separated from the filling by an edible barrier layer.
An edible barrier between pizza crust and other components such as tomato sauce is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,796 (McKee). The barrier minimizes migration of sauce into the crust thereby preserving taste and texture of the pizza product.
Selleck (U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,949) also discloses minimized saturation of a bread product by providing the baked bread with a channel with a thick crust which holds a liquid food material and acts as a liquid migration barrier.
Various edible food containers (e.g., ice-cream cones) rendered resistant to moisture from a food filling by applying a moisture-resistant fat to the interior of the container in U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,553 (Rubenstein).
Accordingly, a need has existed for a means for preventing migration of moisture between various components of a food composition when one component is dryer than another component. This is particularly true for food products which are prepared days or weeks before the intended time for consumption and stored in frozen form. Modern production and distribution of convenience foods which can be ultimately prepared by the consumer with minimal final cooking time demands methods of production which will provide both ease of industrial preparation while still assuring an ultimate product of quality as close to freshly prepared as possible.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fast, convenient and effective method of preparing a filled food product which has effectively minimized moisture migration between components thereof.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method for continuous production of all natural convenience foods (e.g., a pizza crust roll filled with pizza sauce and "toppings") which have an extended shelf life by virtue of effective minimization of moisture migration between components of the food product.
These objects and other advantages of this invention will become more apparent from the following description and the details discussed therein.